Community and Family Studies Family Report

1. Select two of the following family structures to investigate: * Nuclear
* Same sex couples

The Nuclear Family Structure - Is it declining?

The traditional definition of a nuclear family is simply two married parents of opposite genders, together with their biological or adopted children that live under the same residence. However, in today’s society this classic role can be defined differently with the evolution and introduction of modern trends, relationships and other complications. However still in retrospective, the idea of two adults and two children are of what make up the nuclear family structure.

Women are much more righteous, as apposed to the 1950s. The social norms of that generation were of which to create a nuclear family. A stereotypical ‘stay at home mother’ raising two children that was married to the breadwinner husband. As this view has been overthrown throughout the generations it has impacted and differentiated the results of the traditionally prevalent family structure: nuclear.

Families and household structures have greatly changed over time, along with changes in fertility patterns, longevity and social attitudes. The Declining fertility and increased childlessness result in more coupled families without children. This meaning that the nuclear family is no longer the prevalent family structure.

The social changes that have lead to decrease the nuclear families, is the childless families. It is now a norm option living arrangement. People choose this style of living as their goals are dismissed on the idea of children, and focused on other aspects their life. For example, a couple may choose to excel in a career path rather than having children at an early age. As they reach their goal career, the female may already have reached a low fertility rate due to her age and are unable to have children.

There are also many cases in Australia where couples cannot financially support a child. To support a child, today in Australia costs roughly $224,000 each. However benefits from the government available some adults are still financially inadequate to support a child, due to their jobs or lifestyle.

From statistics, it is proven that the divorce rate in Australia hovers just below 50% making a substantial influence to new family structures. The increase in the rate of relationship breakdowns and remarriage can lead to the formation of more one-parent families, step and blended families. An example of this is a parent gets divorced with his child, and remarried to another with another two children. This is now evolved into a blended or otherwise known stepfamily.

This can be seen as a contrast from the 1950s nuclear family structures, as there is a broader social changed that has been affected through generations. The social norms within society reflect the shape of families and how they choose to act through situations of divorce, financially situations, and other cases.

This graphs from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2004 shows the couple families with children decreasing, whilst the couple families without children are increasing. A small increase in one-parent families and the families with a female parent agree to this statement. The sole parents with children have managed to stay the same.

However this source being taken in 2004 it gives a prediction that there will be an increase of options of family structures. This provides evidence that already in 2004 this wave of prevalence for couples with children families are slowly declining to other options.

Recent statistics from the 2011 Census show that people aged fifteen years and over, which are legally married, carry almost half the population’s percentage of social marital status. This number is exactly 49.2%, and then followed by non-married people, which is 41.3%. De facto couples makes up 9.5% of the population.

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...﻿Concept of a FamilyFamily is defined as a group of people related by blood, marriage, or adoption living together.
Remember:
We are not defining families by how many, and what kind of people they have.
We define them by what they do.
Definitions
Spouse - someone who is married: a husband or wife
Common-law partner - used to describe a relationship between a man and woman that is considered to be a marriage because the man and woman have lived together for a long period of time
Functions of the Family
What do families do?
Families naturally do one or more or all of these actions or functions:
Physical care and health maintenance of all members
Get more members by birth or adoption
Prepare children for adulthood in society (socialization)
Control and accountability for children
Provide food, shelter, safety (by working, earning money, and spending it to meet these needs)
Provide love
Forms of Family
The number of adults, the type of relationship that the adults have, and then number of children make up the family form.
Nuclear Family - the part of a family that includes only the father, mother, and children
Dyad Family - consists of two people living together, usually a woman and a man, without children
Example: Newly-married couples
Live-in couples
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